1. Technical Field
The field of art to which this invention pertains may be generally located in the class of devices relating to valves. Class 137, Fluid Handling, U.S. Patent Office Classification, appears to be the applicable general area of art to which the subject matter similar to this invention has been classified in the past.
2. Background Information
This invention relates to direct solenoid operated poppet valves, such as three-way and four-way directional flow control poppet air valves having an adjustable valve seat that provides a variable flow orifice for supplying a preset air flow requirement, with minimum valve and solenoid strokes and maximum air flow control efficiency.
At the present time, industry is requiring smaller and more efficient valves. One of the problems that must be overcome to meet the requirement of smaller and more efficient directional flow control poppet air valves is the reduction of the manufacturing tolerance accumulation between the moving parts of a valve and the parts of the solenoid for operating the valve. The tolerances in a direct solenoid operated poppet air valves of this type are due to poppet and poppet seat locations in the valve body, and push pin and pole piece tolerances in the solenoid.
It is an object of the invention to provide a direct solenoid operated poppet air valve having an adjustable valve seat that provides a variable air flow orifice which permits the valve stroke to be set accurately in accordance with a selected air flow requirement, with a resultant accurate minimum solenoid stroke based on the valve stroke.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method of reducing the manufacturing tolerance accumulation in a direct solenoid operated poppet air valve, so as to selectively provide a poppet air valve with a low air flow requirement and low power solenoid, or with a high air flow requirement and a high power solenoid.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a direct solenoid operated poppet air valve wherein the valve stroke is set, then based on measured poppet location with respect to the solenoid pole piece, a push pin is selected that will provide the minimum solenoid stroke required for the preset valve stroke.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a direct solenoid operated poppet air valve having an adjustable valve seat, and wherein the solenoid is provided with a pole piece.